


chilly divides

by Darkfromday



Series: Arc-V Rare Pair Week 2017 [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Arc V Rare Pair Week, F/M, M/M, lateposting 2017, prompt fills
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 06:59:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11962140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkfromday/pseuds/Darkfromday
Summary: Prompt fills for Arc-V Rare Pair Week, Day 3: Winter.





	1. left out to freeze (serena/yuugo)

“Want some hot chocolate?” Yuugo asked excitedly. He was hopping from foot to foot as he watched the drink machine mix, pour and stir a cup.

Serena just gave him a weird look. “No thanks. I’m warm enough. You know, since you’ve grabbed or turned on every source of heat in this house for us.”

He just stuck his tongue out at her. “You’re welcome, Serena, for making sure we stay alive in this blizzard.”

“You’re kidding, right? It’s barely twenty-seven degrees outside. My Fusion bedchamber was colder than this.”

Yuugo didn’t say anything for a bit, which was odd enough-–but when he gave her the finished cup of hot chocolate he’d been practically salivating over, Serena knew she’d put her foot in her mouth somehow.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’.”

 _Ugh_. “Come on, Yuugo.”

He was staring out the window into Maiami, watching the people pull on gloves and huddle together to trudge through the snow. “It’s just… I forget sometimes that you’re basically a soldier, you went through all this endurance training and shit. So stuff like this… you’re not even uncomfortable, because you’re used to having supplies even in the worst of weather.”

_Oh. Damn it._

She in turn sometimes forgot that her fellow newly minted Lancer was (still) an orphan. Though she hadn’t been fond of her circumstances, at least she’d had some…

“I thought… well, that Rin took care of things for you.”

Yuugo shrugged. Since he was wearing seven blankets, his shoulders barely moved. “She made sure I was fed and safe from Security, yeah–-but she’s still my friend, not my mom. There was only so much we could do for each other. We couldn’t always find shelter or warm clothes or nice people to stay with, and so sometimes in the winter we just, you know….”

 _Froze_.

Serena’s hunch had been right. She’d stuck her foot so far in it that her ankles were probably in her mouth too.

_No wonder he doesn’t mind being stuck in this safe house while we wait for the tournament to be over. There’s food, and space, and blankets… and he doesn’t have to worry about extremities breaking off._

“…Sorry.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t know.” His bright blue eyes narrowed. “Hey, don’t start feeling sorry for me or anything–-”

“Who, me?  _Never_.”

The only problem was, how was Serena supposed to make fun of him for lovingly cradling hot chocolate packets and jamming the plus button on the heater when she knew now  _why_  he was so enthralled with all these basic requirements for winter survival?

Plus,  _now_  Yuugo was running back and forth between the heater, the stove and the microwave, marveling at how fast and efficient they all were. He looked stupid and–-and  _adorable_  at the same time.

“I’m  _still_  not warm,” he whined now, jiggling in place and looking absolutely pitiful.

But no less adorable.

That decided it.

“Oh, fine, come over here,” she said exasperatedly. “If we sit close together with all our blankets we’ll be warmer.”

“ _Really?_   WAHOO!” Yuugo leapt up into the air, practically clicking his boots together under all those blankets without falling down somehow. He practically zoomed over to sit down with her on the couch.

A second later, though, he got a glint in his eyes and a curiously hopeful look that Serena didn’t like…

“Hey–-to stay warm, can we…  _cuddle_?!”

“ _No_.”


	2. no need (reiji/ruri)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruri shops for our hipster Kaiba.

“Would you prefer lavender or lilac, miss?”

“Um,” Ruri offered eloquently.  _What’s really the difference?_  “Bring me both, please.”

The saleswoman hurried back to the scarf section, dollar signs in her eyes.

Back in front of the fitting room mirror, Ruri held up scarves to her neck and earrings that were aquamarine, jade and orchid, and sighed.

 _None of them seems right_.

She’d been scarf-shopping for an hour. Not for herself–-her own boxed-up scarf, carnation pink, sat at her feet waiting impatiently for her to finish. No, Ruri wanted to buy her fiancé a new neck ornament, but imagining Reiji in any color that wasn’t fire-engine-red was sending up big negatives in her brain.

“Not that he wouldn’t look good,” she murmured to herself; he had a disgusting habit of looking good in  _everything_. “But…  _champagne_?  _Cerulean? Sunflower?_  Ugh! Maybe this is why he sticks to ordinary colors…”

The saleswoman hustled back, running over a few casual shoppers in her wake. ( _It looks like she chipped a nail_ , Ruri thought uncharitably.) “Here you are, miss–-the large scarves in both shades.”

“Thank you.” She took them and tossed each around her neck in turn, eliciting some gasps from her lingering audience. Still, these didn’t seem quite right, either.

“Are you having trouble deciding, dear? I assure you, both of these would go well with your lovely hair.”

“You’re very kind,” Ruri said patiently, pushing that hair off her neck, “but I’m not looking at any more scarves for myself.”

“She’s quite right. They are meant for me.”

Ruri nearly tripped on her own dress as she whirled around. For her part, the saleswoman started stammering immediately.

“ _Oh my_ –-Akaba Reiji-san, what an honor! Is there any way–- _anything_  I can help you with–-”

He held up a hand, not halting his stride until he was standing confidently next to Ruri. “That won’t be necessary. I came here solely to see my fiancée.”

“Fian–-”

Ruri thought the woman would faint. Instead she managed to get it together and dismiss herself, though not without staring at Reiji’s pockets as though she could see more of his limitless credit cards with her x-ray vision.

It was a relief to see the back of her. But–-

“I didn’t expect you,” Ruri chuckles, kissing her lover briefly as he put one arm around her hip. “Silly me, but this was  _supposed_  to be a surprise.”

Reiji led her toward the exit doors, retrieving the one scarf she had purchased earlier with one of his cards. He lifted one eyebrow as they went. “Reira told me where you’d gone.”

“That little fibber! He promised not to tell!”

The CEO laughed.

They walked briskly to his car, stopping only briefly to unwind from one another and shiver before getting in on their respective sides. Reiji drove, while Ruri unboxed and admired her new adornment.

“It’s beautiful–-matches your eyes.”

She looked over at him. “I could have gotten you a violet one. Why didn’t you let me?”

“I vastly prefer your intangible gifts to me,” Reiji said casually.

“ _Reiji._ ”

He sighed. “You are kind, considerate and sensitive, and I wished not to harm any of those sensibilities or traits by telling you that I only wear the one scarf because it was Reira’s first homemade present for me.”

Ruri blinked–then she blushed, as the pieces finally came together. “ _Oh_ … Reiji, I didn’t know… that’s so sweet. I didn’t mean to replace something so wonderful.”

“Yes, I know. That is why I came to get you. Well-–that, and…”

He gestured to the backseat, and she turned to look, laughing at herself once she had. The coat she’d neglected to take out into the winter storm was folded neatly there, waiting for her. Seeing it made her feel nearly as warm as he did.

“…I couldn’t have you freezing to death out here before you found my real Christmas present next week.”


	3. hibernating (dennis/shun)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Assumptions: Dennis lives/works in Xyz Dimension after the war. Shun somehow doesn’t hear about it.

Dennis Mackfield is handing out the last of his Entermage-supporting Trap Cards when he feels hot threatening breaths on the back of his neck–-and whoops, sure enough, Kurosaki Shun is glaring down at him by the time he turns around.

“Academia scum.  _What_  are you doing here?”

“ _Yare, yare_ ,” he  _tsks_ , ignoring his faster heartbeat and his pop-goes-the-weasel boner, “is this or is this not public space? Nice to see you again too, Kurosaki-san.”

The taller boy’s response is to just grab his collar and pull him closer threateningly.

“ _Ugh_ –-okay, okay, I got it, ‘don’t act like we’re friends’. Sawatari gives me that same look when I stop by Standard.”

“ _Why,_ ” Kurosaki repeats slowly, “ _are you in my hometown_?”

Dennis snorts condescendingly, because  _okay yeah_ , he  _does_  have some of that Fusion pride, and he’s also kind of sick of being talked to like he’s a modern Typhoid Mary by  _this_  attractive asshole in particular.

“I’ve been here  _all winter_ , moron. Actually, you’ve caught me leaving–-and I was just giving the kids who came for my shows some parting gifts before I left.”

He’s let go almost instantly as soon as he says the word  _gifts_. When he looks back up at his aggressor’s face, it is looking considerably  _less_ aggressive.

“You’ve been in Heartland all winter?” (Tacked on in his tone Dennis hears,  _and there haven’t been any attacks?_ )

“ _Aa_ , squatting here and there.  _I’m kidding!”_ he says hastily as those gold eyes turn dangerous again. “Some families have let me stay with them in exchange for some housework, and some extra performances for their kids.”

Shun sits down on the sidewalk, which is a relief for Dennis’ poor neck muscles. He seems to be wrestling with something, and far be it for Dennis to disturb someone who’s already kicked his ass.

_And plus, he’s cute when he thinks. Well–-he’s cute when he’s angry, too. And when he does that overdramatic draw when he’s dueling–-_

“Where are you going?”

He snaps back to attention at Kurosaki’s question, blushing, then kind of… sags. Because he has no earthly idea where he’s going to wait out the season, and until he was  _just reminded_  of that, he’d blessedly forgotten.

“Eh, I dunno… somewhere warm?” He lies down, putting his arms behind his head and grinning wistfully. “Maybe I’ll go bug Gon-chan in Standard, or Yuugo-kun in Synchro.”

For a moment he doesn’t even get a grunt in response. It’s uncomfortably quiet, reminding Dennis that for all his jokes, he really  _doesn’t_  have a reliable set of friends to count on anymore. Or maybe he never had. There’s no guarantee that either of the boys he mentioned  _alone_  would even give him a lukewarm welcome.

“You can’t go home?”

Dennis chokes on a laugh. At first he thinks the question is a jab at him, a request for him to hit the road already; then he hears the sincerity in it and feels a bit of shame for even thinking that. Of all the Lancers, only Kurosaki understands what it’s like when you literally  _can’t_  go home. His real home, where his family was whole and happy, is in the irretrievable past.

Dennis’ “home” is a training ground for young monsters, a place he once thrived when he was too good for a conscience. There is no way he could  _ever_  go back there for more than five minutes, unless he wanted to start screaming and never stop.

“Nah. Academia’s got most of Fusion Dimension under its thumb even now, and their whole 'imprison and indoctrinate’ routine… isn’t my style anymore.”

To his surprise, Kurosaki actually  _chuckles_ , and he makes a joke. “Not their style anymore either.”

Dennis laughs, and feels the best kind of traitorous warm fuzzies as he does.

He looks up and Kurosaki is staring straight at him again, with that thoughtful raptor expression he  ~~loves~~  hates. It’s as if the guy is deciding whether to fly with him or feed on him.

“…Mackfield.”

“Uh-–yeah?”  _Holy shit, we’ve come far. That’s a lot better than 'Academia scum’!_

“Since you’ve got nowhere else to go–-and the kids wouldn’t understand how much you deserve it if you froze to death–-you, uh, might as well come stay in one of our guest rooms.”

Dennis feels his face turn tomato-red–-it takes all he has to keep his voice from cracking. “Why, Kurosaki! You’re inviting rotten old  _me_  into your home?”

“ _No_ ,” Kurosaki says too quickly, “ _Ruri’s_  asked me to invite you to stay if you could be found, and since you unfortunately  _could_  be found-–”

“Ah ah ah, you managed to stay away from me this long. I’m supposed to believe that Ruri wants me in her space but  _you_  don’t want me in your same space?”

“ _Yes!_ Yes you are, you stubborn bastard!”

Dennis gets up and twirls, and dances in a circle, teasing him. “Just come out with it, Kurosaki~! You can say it: ’ _Dennis, I want to keep you warm. Dennis, the thought of having you around makes me happy. Dennis, come hunker down in my nest!’_ ”

“If you don’t  _shut the hell up_  I will leave you out here for the crows to pick at!”

“Crows? Wrong dimension,  _Shun-kun_.”

“GAH!”


End file.
